This Cool Map Shows What $100 Is Worth Relative To The State You’re In

Everything is relative. Time is relative to your speed and location in the universe. Beauty is obviously relative to someone’s personal preferences. Even the value of the money in your wallet is relative to where you want to spend it.

That last point has been illustrated by the Tax Foundation, a non-partisan research think tank based in Washington, DC. The group came up with this handy map that highlights the purchasing power of $100 relative to the state in which it’s spent.

As you can see, the results should make people in the Midwest and Deep South feel relatively happy, while at the same time making citizens of New York, California, and Hawaii feel relatively sad.

One-hundred dollars seems to go the furthest in Mississippi, where, relative to the rest of the country, it will purchase you $115.74 worth of goods or services. This explains how the state can afford all those unnecessarily S’s and I’s. That same $100 only yields $84.60 in Washington, D.C. The fact that our nation’s capital ranks dead last is fitting, considering the way the federal government burns through our tax dollars.

Of course, there’s more to life than money, which is why you don’t see a ton of people migrating from Hawaii to Arkansas. But still, with a $25.59 difference between the two states, maybe the Ozarks aren’t looking half bad to people in Oahu.

Just kidding. If you willingly trade Lahaina for Little Rock, you’re a schmuck.

But, on a side note, this map could just as easily translate to the relative hotness of your significant other. My girlfriend and I recently traveled from the West Coast to the Midwest. For most of the trip, it was like I was dating a supermodel, relative to our surroundings.

I’m kidding. I don’t have a girlfriend.

But this hotness scale I’ve come up with is still really clever. Someone should write a basic-cable sitcom about it.